Front spring

[Dave Gee]

I have been running my Vignale all summer, making a list of things to do. Before I got the car the front spring had had a repair carried out on it, and the front suspension seems about 40mm too low. I would like to try and locate a nother spring. Am I right in thinking that a coupe spring will fit, but not a saloon? Does anyone have one?

Dave

[Bert Ewalds]

As far as I can see from the Parts catalogue the front spring for Coupe and Convertible are identical, at least the main (largest) spring leaf.
Parts catalogue Table 56 Item 19

Bert

[Richard]

Hi Richard,

I have just had all of my springs retempered. The car was very low at the front, about 12mm travel at the rubber bump stops. It's now higher, I haven't measured it yet, but the springing is stiffer, i.e. it doesn't bottom out over bumps anymore. The retempering cost me abot GBP 60.00 for front and two rears, so maybe half that for the front?

Of course taking the springs out and replacing them was fairly major and that added to the bill, but you would have to do that anyway.

Richard

[Paul de Raymond Leclercq]

Dear Richard,

Very interesting; please tell me who in England carried out the re-rempering

Thanks

Paul

[Richard]

Hello Paul,

Sorry to have misled you with the sterling quote. I live in Cape Town, but I am sure if you look up Spring Works or something like that in the Yellow Pages you should come up with something. It's one of those old trades that grew up with the age of steam, so there might still be some old spring temperers?! around.

We actually replaced one of the leaves (#4) with a new one that fitted, from a pickup truck!

I have Fulvia springs on the back - one of mine had broken. I believe they are the same as the Flavia, they certainly fit exactly, although the Flavia must be significantly heavier at the rear. Time will tell...

Richard

[Paul de Raymond Leclercq]

Thanks Richard.

In the past I have been told that it is not possible to re-temper the Fulvia springs.

The ones that I have seen that have been newly-manufactured are no good; they have fewer eaves each of which is thicker and look like costermonger's cart springs with great rivets through them - and usually a car fitted with these springs rides too high.

Good luck with the Fulvia ones on your Falvia - you may need it!

Paul

[carlo venturi]

Dear Dave Gee, I solved happily this problem on my flavia 1.8 coupè some years ago putting between the front leaf spring and the rubber buffer a suitable washer. The story goes that a spare parts shop owners gave me an alloy gauge to put between the front leaf spring end and the rubber buffer under it. It was a single piece, but the grinding shop had no difficult in making two of them from an iron billet. This gauge we are speaking of is about 5 millimeters height and has the same circular shape of the buffer; its center line has two holes to allocate the buffer screws. If you are a Do It Yourself man, be very careful when working, in fact to flatten the Flavia coupè\cabriolet leaf spring (and loose the whole thing), you have to load 1200 Kg. If I remember well, the gap among the front wheel and the wing arch, increased by 50 to 70 mm (more than one inch). Excuse the delay in answering to you. Flavia Coupè are really fine cars to drive. Ciao, Carlo.

[carlo venturi]

Excuse Dave, 50 to 70 mm are more than two inches. Carlo venturi wrote:
>
> Dear Dave Gee, I solved happily this problem on my flavia
> 1.8 coupè some years ago putting between the front leaf
> spring and the rubber buffer a suitable washer. The story
> goes that a spare parts shop owners gave me an alloy gauge to
> put between the front leaf spring end and the rubber buffer
> under it. It was a single piece, but the grinding shop had no
> difficult in making two of them from an iron billet. This
> gauge we are speaking of is about 5 millimeters height and
> has the same circular shape of the buffer; its center line
> has two holes to allocate the buffer screws. If you are a Do
> It Yourself man, be very careful when working, in fact to
> flatten the Flavia coupè\cabriolet leaf spring (and loose the
> whole thing), you have to load 1200 Kg. If I remember well,
> the gap among the front wheel and the wing arch, increased by
> 50 to 70 mm (more than one inch). Excuse the delay in
> answering to you. Flavia Coupè are really fine cars to drive.
> Ciao, Carlo.

[Huib Geurink]

Over de last couple of years I have taken my springs to www.eeltink.nl. This used to be a spring manufacturer. Nowadays they import springs for trucks. However, they still have all the equipment for producing leaf springs. The young guys don't know how to operate the machines, but fortunately Uncle Leen (pronounced as Lane) is still there from 6 a.m. till 12 a.m. Take your springs there and for about 100 euro (total for the 3 springs) and a bottle of old genever your springs will be returned better than new. Uncle Leen is 80 years young. The genever is necessary to keep him young. Nevertheless, don't waste time.

Before I found Uncle Leen, I tried all sorts of things, such as inserting spacers, hammering new leaves from spring steel or reshaping leaves from vans. It does not work.

Uncle Leen does a very professional job which includes a cycle in the oven with a peak at 900 degrees C followed by a cold bath.

If springs are low, they are not only low, they are also tired and shorter leaves will not press hard enough against the next leaf. This is not visible when the springs are still under the car, but as soon as you take them off you ill notice the ends are "open".

The ride and handling of any Fulvia or Flavia will improve dramatically when it is on new, healthy springs. It is worth doing.

Specify how much higher you want the springs. Best is to do the measurements before you take the springs off the car and compare those to the data in the specifications book. I have done a dozen cars. Usually the springs need to be raised by 4 cm.

I am right now remounting the springs to my 1976 Fulvia coupe. Some years ago I replaced the 2nd leave of the rear springs by a new one. These new leaves were thicker and cold hammered into shape. When I took the springs off some weeks ago, these thicker leaves were totally flat, while the original leaves still had at least some curvature. Also one of the top leaves had cracked lengthwise!!!!!! I have been told using different thicknesses of steel in one set of springs is a VERY BAD idea.

When you have the springs rejuvenated it is a good idea to have your shocks tested. Shocks are there to dampen oscillations of the spring. If they are bad, springs will tire again quickly and there will be a high risk of breaking a spring leaf. On the other hand, if you mount new shocks on a car with tired springs, the shocks will be overloaded and break soon.

In particular Flavia springs have a bad reputation for breaking. Look after the springs and the shocks!

When I have a Flavia front spring done by Uncle Leen I ask him to make a new second leaf, which extends half way the rubber buffer at the end like the Fulvia springs. I hope it solves (or at least reduces) the problem of breaking of the front spring.

Flaminia and Aurelia rear springs never break, while the Flavia rear ones often do. I figure this is because of the brakes. The Aurelia and Flaminia have their rear brakes on the transaxle. Braking does not load the springs. The Flavia's have the brakes on the wheel hub. When braking the spring is forced into an S shape to counteract the brake forces.

[obergerat]

hello,
i'm a new member of your Forum.

I'm looking for a spare-part for my front leafspring, that had brocken after 90'000km on my Lancia Flavia Convertible.
Does anyone know where could I find this part ?

olivier bergerat
Geneva-ch